The War of Canudos (Portuguese: Guerra de Canudos,) was a conflict between the First Brazilian Republic and the residents of Canudos in the northeastern state of Bahia, between 1896 and 1897. It was waged in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery in Brazil and the overthrow of the monarchy. The conflict arose from a millenarian cult led by Antônio Conselheiro, who began attracting attention around 1874 by preaching spiritual salvation to the poor population of the sertão, a region which suffered from severe droughts.
A settlement beyond the republic's control
The conflict had its origins in the former settlement of Canudos (named Belo Monte by its inhabitants, meaning "Beautiful Hill" in Portuguese) in the semi-arid backcountry (or sertão) of Bahia. In the late 19th Century, the region suffered with poverty, with an economy based on subsistence agriculture and cattle raising, severely lacking infrastructure. The disenfranchised population drew equally from rural and urban portions of the region and represented a "broad spectrum of ethnic and economic origins".
The region was a fertile ground for the growth of dissatisfaction with the new Republic, proclaimed on 15 November 1889, after a military coup against the ruling emperor, Pedro II. While the republic was strongly supported by much of the urban population, the old emperor was still beloved by the common people. For the sertanejos, "the only change" that came with the establishment of the republic was "an increase in taxes." This period was characterized by considerable political, social and economic instability, as the military fought to put down revolts all over the country.
It became, therefore "immensely unpopular" and dangerous to be known as anything other than republican during this time. At the onset of this early republican era, a man by the name of Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel, known as Antônio Conselheiro (Antônio, the Counselor) began rising to prominence in Bahia's hinterlands. He was one of the many itinerant religious figures in the backcountry of Brazil.
The first military expeditions
The incident that served as the catalyst for Canudos’ eventual destruction was a dispute over delivery of lumber. Conselheiro had placed an order of wood from a business in the neighboring town of Juazeiro he often did business with to construct a new church. However, a new local judge, Arlindo Leoni, opposed Conselheiro and prevented the delivery. Some Canudenses then took it upon themselves to go to Juazeiro to claim the wood. Hearing of this plan, the judge responded by requesting police forces from the state governor, Luis Viana, claiming an imminent "invasion" of his town by Conselheiro and his followers.
The defeat of the Pires Ferreira campaign produced sensationalist media reports about the ferocity and fanaticism of Canudos' inhabitants, which provoked an outcry and calls for reprisals against the settlement. Rather than causing its inhabitants to flee, the armed conflict caused the settlement to grow exponentially, and it now numbered over 30,000 residents. On 12 January 1897, Republican troops, which comprised 547 men, 14 officers, and 3 surgeons, left Juazeiro for Canudos. The attack on the Conselheiristas began on 18 January, and led to the death of 115 Canudenses with minimal losses on the army's side, which had some initial success with artillery against the villagers' trenches.
The final assault and its aftermath
Pressured, the federal government sent a new expedition under general Arthur Oscar de Andrade Guimarães, assisted by four other generals, and with the direct involvement of Carlos Machado de Bittencourt, the Minister of War, who went with his entire staff to Monte Santo, the nearby city which had served as the gathering point for the army and where the large military force was being assembled. Machine guns and large artillery pieces, such as mortars and howitzers, including a powerful Whitworth 32, nicknamed Matadeira (Killer), went with the 3,000-man force, and had to be hauled with enormous effort through the unforgiving roadless landscape. The troops set off on 16 June. This time, the attackers were aided by the rampant hunger and malnutrition (and most of all thirst) among the inhabitants of Canudos, and the heavy losses they had suffered in the previous attacks.
Investigators eventually concluded that Antônio Conselheiro himself had likely died of dysentery on 22 September. Before Canudos was burned down and dynamited, Conselheiro's body was exhumed, the head was removed, and it was "displayed on a pike" to be "held high at the front of a military parade for all to see." According to Peter Robb, it "was taken to the Medical Faculty of Bahia to be studied for abnormalities." When all resistance ceased and "peace" was restored, only 150 survivors remained. Estimates for the number of dead in the War of Canudos vary.